Existing alignment and targeting systems cannot appropriately engage targets that are obscured by dust, smoke, fog, brush, fabric, and other forms of cover. Many of these systems use an eye safe laser which is not capable of penetrating the obscurants. Alternative solutions replace the laser with location tracking and orientation sensors to determine if two systems are aligned. However, this solution has the disadvantage of not being able to dynamically sense if the line of sight between the systems is obscured. The approach requires highly accurate and detailed terrain data maps be used to enable realistic obscured line-of-sight engagements while preventing unrealistic ones. Anything that is not accurately depicted in the terrain data such as rocks, trees, sandbags, and vehicles will result in unrealistic engagements. The use of highly accurate terrain data, system orientation, and location information are major contributing factors to the complexity of this approach.
A need therefore exists for improved systems and methods for determining alignment of a first subsystem relative to a second subsystem.